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Nine Entertainment Co’s strategy of investing in fledgling companies it can help build through its television and magazine assets is rolling on, with the media group cementing its alliance with Mark Bouris’ wealth management company Yellow Brick Road.

Next month shareholders in Yellow Brick Road will vote on a plan announced in early April to sell 32.45 million new shares or 19.9 per cent of the company to Nine for just under $13 million.

Half of the money would be paid in cash. The rest would be paid in the form of ads with Nine’s TV, magazine and Ticketek divisions over a five-year period. The deal does not cover ninemsn, the internet company half-owned by Nine.

Yellow Brick Road also plans to issue 8.56 million share options to Nine, which could be converted to shares if certain performance targets were met. If the options were converted, Nine’s stake would rise to 24.9 per cent.

The company said it had decided to grant the options to Nine to motivate it to assist “in deriving maximum value for the advertising and associated benefits to be provided under the contra advertising” it would receive.

According to the agreement between Nine, which is owned by private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific, and Yellow Brick Road the ads would be “provided at a favourable discounted rate off the standard rate card rates” and Nine “may also provide access to in-house production services and assist in developing creative television programming concepts to help enhance the Yellow Brick Road brand”.

Nine director of strategy and digital, David Coleman, was expected to join the Yellow Brick Road board after the deal was approved by shareholders.

“Nine Entertainment Co is in the business of building brands and this partnership with Yellow Brick Road will allow us to support a people’s champion in the financial services sector,” Nine chief executive David Gyngell said in a statement.

“Financial security is a goal of every Australian and we will utilise the reach and penetration of Nine to spread the message of Yellow Brick Road across the community. Through our relationship with Mark Bouris and the team at Yellow Brick Road, we have the experience and reputation to build a powerful brand that will make a real difference in this country.”

In April, Nine finance director and chief operating officer Pat O’Sullivan said the investment in Yellow Brick Road was part of the company’s strategy to take equity in “early-stage” businesses and use its media assets to help build their brands.

“We did it with Carsales.com, iSelect and Cudo, and now with Yellow Brick Road,” he said (Nine sold its 49.1 per cent stake in Carsales in March).

“Are there 10 similar deals we might do over the next two years? No, but we are looking at other potential investments.”

Since the Yellow Brick Road deal was announced, Nine has bought 20 per cent of online shoe retailer StyleTread.

Earlier this year Mr Gyngell said Nine would continue to invest in new businesses and “use our media assets to build them”.

“We can’t just sit here looking at TV ratings and magazine circulation numbers,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

“We need to build the Nine business. There are lots of opportunities to invest in new companies, use Nine and ACP to help build them up, and then trade them. We’re not looking to be long-term holders of most of these companies.”

Nine’s strategy mirrored the one adopted by its predecessor, Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd, which during the second half of the 1990s used its ecorp subsidiary to invest in or launch myriad businesses, including stockbroker Charles Schwab, online auction company eBay Australia, ninemsn, Ticketek, job ads website Monster.com and Mr Bouris’s previous company, Wizard Financial Services.